Can Ergosterol Be an Indicator of Fusarium Fungi and Mycotoxins in Cereal Products?

• Autor(a) principal: Stanisz,Ewa
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Zgoła-Grześkowiak,Agnieszka, Waśkiewicz,Agnieszka, Stępień,Łukasz, Beszterda,Monika
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532015000400705
• topic: ergosterol; mycotoxins; Fusarium; flour; groat; flakes

Presence of fungi in food and feed products is a major problem. Fungi synthesize a large number of secondary metabolites including particularly harmful mycotoxins. They can be produced in plant tissues and are commonly found all over the world in many products including cereals. A total of 44 samples were taken for identification of ergosterol - the potential marker of fungal presence. Fourteen of these samples were chosen for further studies that included the evaluation of the relationship between ergosterol content and three major mycotoxins produced by Fusariumspp.: fumonisin B1, zearalenone and deoxynivalenol. Fungal strains were also isolated and identified by molecular means in those samples. The results of the studies give a further and more detailed insight into the relationship between contents of ergosterol and mycotoxins in different cereal products. It was found that there was no correlation between content of ergosterol and mycotoxins in the tested food products. Also, the presence of mycotoxins was not correlated with occurrence of species able to produce these toxins.